Ok, I've heard of the legendary 3 week stall. But, I'm only one week post op and I've been in a stall for two days now. The first four days, weight just flew off. Was down 9 lbs in those four days. Then, I gained a pound and the scale hasn't moved since.

I'm on a 3 week, full liquid diet. And I don't honestly think I've had more than 300 calories since this thing started. I probably should eat more, but with all the sip, sip, sipping, I've only been able to "eat" about two meal of watered-down and strained Soup per day. I'm getting in my 60 oz of Water, Crystal Light, or unsweetened decaf tea, and about 20 g of Protein. (My NUT wants us to work up from 20 to 60 g in three weeks following the surgery.)

I haven't started working out yet. Giving myself until Monday to start back at the YMCA. But, I've already gone back to work and I run (walk) plenty of errands, so I'm not sedentary.

I've read Embrace the Stall, and I'm all for it. But, I guess I just need to hear it from you guys. Is a stall only one week post op abnormal? Has anyone else experienced a stall this early on? Could it be because I'm a "Low BMI'er"? (Started out at 34.5 BMI and was 33 BMI on the day of the surgery.) What is going on, man?!

A stall after one week is strange. However, keep in mind that it all depends on how much weight you have to lose and how much muscle mass you have. People who don't have that much weight to loses will lose weight slower than those who have a larger weight to lose. People who have more muscle mass will also lose weight faster.

Are you having bowel movements? I was stuck for 3 days at one weight until I pooped during week 2. Then I gained a pound in week 3 which ushered in my 2nd period of the month, and now I have lost 1 lb a day since starting week 4 yesterday.

This is not a stall, it's a completely normal postop fluid shift. Stop driving yourself crazy and stay off the scale. This has been one of my standard lessons to postop clients for decades, no matter the kind of surgery they had.

What is a post-op fluid switch exactly? Curious as heck now.

What is a post-op Fluid switch exactly? Curious as heck now.

OK. First, your body carries fluid (mostly water) in lots of different compartments: inside cells, outside cells, in your bloodstream, outside your bloodstream, all over the place. Your body seeks balance between fluid held inside and outside all those different places. What happens when you have surgery? First, you are deprived of fluid coming in to your body from food or drink for a number of hours beforehand. Then, during and after surgery, you get liters of fluid pumped into your bloodstream (it goes into a vein through your IV, remember). You still aren't getting fluid by the usual means - through food and drink - for some time after.

Fluid that you normally ingest gets absorbed during the process of digestion. It gets filtered into your veins through the blood vessels throughout your digestive tract. IV fluids get dumped directly into a vein without that filtering. So right there, your veins are going "hey! that's a lot of Water there!", and they get the rest of the cells working to move the extra from inside the veins to where it belongs.

And then you have surgery. Things get moved around, and cut, and jostled. Swelling happens. Swelling is (among other things) the movement of fluid from inside the cells, where it belongs, to outside the cells, where it has leaked out because the cells are damaged and send cellular cleanup crews to work on that.

So we have fluid going into and out of places where it doesn't belong on an everyday basis, because surgery isn't an everyday event. It takes time for the body to get it's fluid balance back. That process is commonly known as a postop fluid shift. Some folks take longer for this fluid shift to resolve than others, but it happens to everyone, it's just a normal part of the way our bodies work.

For the first week or so postop, our bodies are just trying to deal with the trauma of surgery. They are not interested in our weightloss goals. That's as it should be.

I hope this helps!

Awesome information. It helps tremendously. Thank you!

A stall lasts for days... I think it abnormal to EXPECT to lose weight daily the first weeks. Focus on healing and recovery!